


Wow Drabbles

by Mandalore5



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst, Gen, Guilt, Loss, Suramar, blood elf, demon hunter - Freeform, nightborne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 11:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15662349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandalore5/pseuds/Mandalore5
Summary: Barinicus Runebreaker champion of the Horde contemplates his roll in the burning of Teldrassil. He doesn't care for where it takes him.Credit to Blizzard for creating World of Warcraft and Korine.





	Wow Drabbles

      The sun shone brightly over the streets of Suramar. Recently liberated, the city was a bustle of activity, in a quiet corner of the city where a memorial to the war to retake the city had been erected a Sin'dorei sat in the shade. The elf was hunched over fingers steepled before him. His leather armor was sparse, one would think him a rogue or monk. But the blindfold, ram like horns and demonic scales and flesh broken by his fel-green tattoos marked him as a Demon Hunter. He was Barinicus, slayer of the Illidari, liberator of Suramar, and Champion of the Horde. 

 

      It was that last title that was currently on his mind. Despite his picturesque location, his mind was a thousand miles away. Watching everything he thought he believed in burn away.

 

**_“Burn it!”_ ** _ She had cried. _

 

_ Barinicus turned his eyes catching the flick of magic. Before he could act before anyone could the projectiles soared through the sky and struck the tree. His world slowed down, for the first time since he torn his own eyes out he froze. _

_ Distantly he heard the High overlord shout. But his eyes were locked on the tree as the fire climbed up. He saw the lights fading, each a live being snuffed out. _

 

_ A scream to his side drew his attention. His head snapped and he saw a Kaldorei male begging him to save his family from the fire. The desperation in his eyes. It reminded him. Of...of.. _

 

“Me.”

 

      Back in the present, Barinicus reached to his neck. There, on a supple gold chain, hung a sapphire suspended in silver wire. Within the gem’s facets images of a younger, less fel twisted version of Barinicus looked back at him alongside a golden haired woman with a smile that could light the darkest night. The man held a cheery faced girl in his arms, her father’s hair, her mother’s smile. 

 

      Once again he was dragged back to that terrible day. When he was trapped under the rubble his wife and daughter cowered before the approaching demons. He had told them to run to hide. But fear kept them rooted to the spot, he remembered how his wife in her last moments had shielded their daughter. He remembered the look of fear and terror in his girl’s eyes as the demon swung it’s weapon. 

 

_ ‘Had he felt the same?’  _ The elf wondered to himself, had that night elf felt the same powerless despair and seething rage that Barinicus had felt that day? The hunter gripped the sapphire in his hand. His breath was ragged and shallow. Had he inflicted the same wound upon those on that shore as the demons had him? 

 

      Tears, hot and full of pain and bitterness escaped the ragged remains of his eyes. As he accepted that truth. 

 

“Are you alright?” A voice asked, bearing the slight distortion of the Shal’Dorei. But it was a very young voice. Barinicus looked up, a young girl stood in front of him. It was Korine, a girl he had helped save when liberating the city. 

 

“I’m quite alright child. Go back to playing with the others.” 

 

“...My mother said she was okay too,” The girl sat down next to the hunter. “When we were in Shal’aran,” She turned her head and looked up at him those wide innocent eyes. Though a different shade, they reminded him so much of his own little one that it hurt to look at her. “I don’t think she was though, and I don’t think you are now.” 

 

      He bowed his head taking in a breath before he spoke. 

 

“I helped do a very bad thing.” 

 

      Korine raised an eyebrow, she remembered how this man had torn through the city to find her. How to put her at ease he’d given her an old doll that belonged to his own child. He’d even let her ride on his shoulders when they made it back to the waning crescent. 

 

“I’m sure you didn’t mean to. When I do something bad, mom makes me fix whatever I did to make up for it. I spilled moonberry juice on a rug yesterday, I cleaned it up and apologized. That’s what you should do.” 

 

      Barinicus looked back to the child, he smiled for the first time in a very long time. 

 

“I wish it were so simple child. I can’t fix what I helped break,” How he wish he could though. How he wish he could have thrown himself into the flames that day. 

 

“...Then you have to make it better,” She spoke with conviction, confidence borne of youth. 

 

“...I will try.” 

 

“That’s all anyone can do,” Korine smiled brightly, and Barinicus felt his heart break more. His tears flowed once again, and his quiet weeping turned into sobs. Korine’s smile vanished and in panic she stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck hugged him close. 

 

      Barinicus, who had slain countless demons who had torn the hearts from Natherizem, spilled the blood of a god in the presence of titans. Now he found himself lost and broken. The only thing keeping him from a complete breakdown was the embrace of a small child. Who reminded him that he had made this world better, that he still could.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah I was trying to figure out what my Demon Hunter's reaction to the burning would be. On one hand they are the 'do whatever it takes to win' type on the other hand...it reminded him of his own family and home.


End file.
